Why 400 Years Of Knowledge Is Better Than 20
If you have ever spent any time in Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia, you have undoubtedly stood on that ground and pondered where we would be if it were not for the perseverance, strength of purpose and desire for liberty displayed by those settlers, by the colonists who first met at the House of Burgesses to declare our independence, and by the citizen delegates who later demanded the ten Constitutional Amendments that we know as the Bill of Rights. How can one ponder those events and not wonder at the same time whether we have the will, perseverance and dedication to resist the influence of the forces that are now attempting to whittle away at the very rights for which the settlers, colonists and delegates died and fought. At the same time as I am celebrating the news of the 400th anniversary of our nation, I am lamenting the hype of the debate being held among the ten Republican Presidential hopefuls at the Ronald Reagan library in California. Although the media commentators are regaling Reagan as the libertarian whom all the candidates should emulate, it was Reagan who, twenty years ago, began the intentional and contrived decimation of one of the precious liberties for which our colonists fought--the right to a jury of one's peers in a court of law. Reagan began the assault which has endured for 20 years when he proclaimed that the "excesses of the courts have taken their toll." An earlier post on this site details Reagan's efforts to misstate the facts, much like the efforts of those who have successfully perpetuated the tort reform impetus for the past twenty years. Over the course of those twenty years, there have been 34 states that have enacted legislation limiting punitive damages, thus limiting the deterrent and retributive effect of awards against the most evil wrongdoers. There have been 25 states that have done away with the collateral source rule, thus enabling negligent parties to deduct from their liability amounts paid to the injured by the injured parties own insurance (for which the injured party has already paid). There have been 28 states that have limited non-economic damages, thus depriving the most vulnerable in society, children, elderly and low-income injured, from recovering when they are severely affected by negligent wrongdoing. Finally, there have been 38 states that have altered the rules of joint and several liability, thus preventing full recovery by a victim of multiple negligent wrongdoers if any of those wrongdoers is insolvent. Yet, on the 400th anniversary of our nation's first settlement, we still hear more cries for "tort reform." It seems that the past twenty years have trumped our first 400 years. Most people who bemoan lawsuits have no idea of the amount of decimation our jury system has already suffered, yet they want more because they have been conditioned to believe that lawsuits are bad things. The media, as I write this post, inflames the public, much like an insidious infection spreading in an unsanitary hospital room. They rampantly report this week of the "judge in D.C. who sues for $67 million over a pair of lost pants." Who knows whether they have their facts accurate, but they obviously love the impact of the story, even introducing it with "Move over lady who recovered millions from McDonald's when she spilled coffee in her lap." It is clear that they want, and indeed succeed in their efforts, to perpetuate the image of the greedy trial lawyer with the non-deserving client recovering outrageous amounts from an unfair system fostered by unaccountable judges and stupid juries. It was 180 years after Jamestown that other Virginians among our nation's founders, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, wanted to assure, as written in the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, that "trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law." Our Supreme Court has never ruled that the Seventh Amendment was binding on the states under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, but the wisdom of the notion of trial by jury still persists. Yet, legislative bodies in every state of this nation have seen fit to violate that notion, because of some contrived and rampantly propagated belief that juries are evil and undermine the aims of legitimate society. |
Sponsored Links:Related Articles:
Education / A Community College Education Is A Good Start Education / Why A University Education? Career Training / ?Choosing The Right Career Training Programs Career Education / Career Education Institute Education / Community College Advantages Coin Collecting / Coin Collectors: Engaging In The Hobbies Of Kings News / Boy On Carnal Knowledge Charge Remanded Christmas / The Tradition Of The Christmas Recipe Rubber Stamping / Rubber Stamping Career Coaching / ?John Wooden Coaching Career-A Dream Career For Every Coach Education / Are Student Loans Becoming Necessary Evils? News / Europe'S Future Must Be Knowledge, Says Hubner News / New Knowledge Improves Rice Quality Distance Learning / Overview Of The Different Types Of Instructional Media Career Training / ?What Is Career Mentoring Training Educational Instructions? Also In This Category:Currently Online :317 member(s), 913 guest(s): AbstractCat, AbstractCat, AbstractCat, AllSeeing, AllSeeing, AllSeeing, AngelWings, AnimalRites, Apples, April, Autobot, Autobot, Autobot, Beachrunner, Beanie, Beanie, Beatasone, BerryNice, BetterYou, BirdGossip, BlackCloud, BlackCloud, BlingBling, BloodFlower, BloodFlower, Bluberry, BlueBreakfast, BlueBreakfast, BlueButterFly, BombDrop, BubbleBlock, BubbleBlock, BurningBiker, CaffineAddict, CaptainCrunch, CaptainCrunch, Carnivour, CarpetShark, Cashsplash, Casper, CaterpillarCrawler, CatNap, CheeseCake, CheeseCake, Cheesybite, Cheesybite, Cheesybite, Cheesybite, Cheesybite, CherryBerry, CherryBerry, ChocolateDrop, Cocktail, Commitment, Connie, ConverseShoesRule, ConverseShoesRule, CookieMonster, Cosmiclight, Cow, Cutefrog, Cutefrog, DarkDemon, DarkDesire, DarkThinkeR, DarkTrinket, David, David, David, DawnsAwaken, Discodancer, Dolphinswimmer, Dolphinswimmer, Doughnut, Doughnut, Doughnut, DTrain, Dyllon, Dyllon, EarthShine, Eatsnow, Eatsnow, Eddy, EgyptianWonder, electric, Erin, Erin, Erin, EyeSpy, EyeSpy, EyeSpy, Fairground, Fairground, Fairground, Fantasies, FantasyFootball, FantasyFootball, FeelingHot, FeelingHot, FeelingHot, FeralFeline, FerociousDragon, FireHead, FireHead, FlowerPower, FollowTheLeader, FollowTheLights, FootballFan, Foxglove, Foxglove, Foxglove, Freedom, FreeSpirit, FreeSpirit, FreeSpirit, FriendlyBug, FriendlyBug, FrostFlake, fruitsalad, FullOfHeart, FunnyFish, FunnyFish, GiddyUp, GoneFishing, Grapes, Grimmy, GuitarsRock, HappyCake, HappySnapper, HartToHart, HartToHart, Heat2010, Helen, HighMaintenance, HighMaintenance, Highway, Highway, Hippie, HocusPocusCrocus, HocusPocusCrocus, Horselover, HoustonKnockout, Hunter, Hunter, Iceberg, Iceblast, Instrumentallegs, IntoTheTrees, JohnnyKnox, JustMe, Kara, Kea, Kevin, KittyInCollinder, KoolKermit, LadderToHeaven, Ladybug, LadyWoman, LadyWoman, LazyDogg, Lenny, Limey, liquidmetal, liquidmetal, LittleMonster, LittleMonster, LittleMonster, LollypopLover, LostMarbles, LuckOfTheIrish, Lunatic, MagicStick, MazMaz, McFox, McFox, Micky, MindsEye, Mitch, Mitch, Moonguide, Moonguide, Moonhaze, MortalKombat, Musicmaker, Musicmaker, NaughtyNinja, Neigh, Neigh, NeverAlone, Nicki, NoOne, NoOne, oddperson, Omnious, ontheplains, OpenRoad, OrangeDaisy, OrangeDaisy, OrangeDaisy, Orangedog, Orangedog, Orchid, Orchid, Orchid, pandatome, pandatome, Paperclip, PassionForDance, PassionForDance, Penguinpal, Penguinpal, PerfectPartners, Power2Frogs, Pulsar, PumpkinPie, PumpkinPie, PuppyLove, RacerX, RacoonClingon, RadicalRodent, RadicalRodent, RadioActive, RainbowPop, ReadyToLaunch, ReadyToLaunch, RedBlocker, RedBlocker, Retrogamer, RunningFree, S4m80, SageBrush, Salinger, SandyPrints, SandyPrints, ScardyCat, ScareyTree, Scorpion, Scorpion, SeaHorse, Seashells, Seashells, Seashells, SecretHoarder, Sheepish, Sheepish, Sheepish, Sheepish, SilentHunter, SimpleStripes, SkateRForeveR, Skatergod, Snowflake, Snowlilly, Snowman, Snowman, SoftballPlayer, Solitarygrowth, Solitarygrowth, SomeOne, SpeedDemon, SpikeyDesert, Splash, Splash, SplitDog, SplitDog, SplitPersonality, Standoutfromthecrowd, Standoutfromthecrowd, StarbucksCoffee, StraightToThePoint, StrangerHere, StrangerHere, StreetRacer, Stumped, Style, SugarRush, SugarRush, sunworshipper, SurfsUp, Sweetlips, SweetLove, SweetLove, TangerineLeaves, TeamWork, TeeOff, TeeOff, TemprementalExplosion , TheBirdWatcher, TheProposal, ThreeRashers, thruthelookingglass, thruthelookingglass, thruthelookingglass, TigerHen, TochaTocha, TotallyChilled, TrickSkate, Tryyourluck, UpThere, VanGoghsEar, Victory, VinyLover, WellBalanced, WildFlower, Wildthing, Windows, WinterWonderland, WoolyFriend, WorldWideWonder, WyleCoyote, WyleCoyote, Xfactor, Xfactor, YellowCall, YellowCall, YummyCherry, YvY, Ask Jeeves, Gigabot, Google, MSN.com, Cobion.com, Slurp, Speedy Spider Search : |
No comments yet
common interview traditions relationship clean reports loans experts watch company stations culture medical guidelines courses germany payment improvement volumes olympia privacy fcra awarded food work launched fast operator house temp chain opportunity comics attend knowledge method recruitment supervisory reading characters regulates mason postage dark head people household current evaluation cents young
Categories: E Degree Reading Speed & Comprehension The Mystic Will Stamp Collecting Writing Resume Criminal Records Background Checks Speed Reading Candle Stamping Career Management Career Development Recruitment Agencies Career Training Career Coaching Online Recruitment Career Change Career Transition Career Career Planning Career Advancement Executive Recruitment Recruitment Services College Scholarship Job Search Distance Learning Rubber Stamping Learn Chinese Homeschooling Learning Disabilities Education Temporary Jobs Home Schooling Satellite Radio Halloween Finding People Crochet Comic Books Clocks Christmas Career Education Home Schooling Education Coin Collecting GPS Devices